Samsung launches new foldable phone

Samsung has unveiled a highly anticipated smartphone with a foldable screen that breaks new ground in a market that has been stuck in an innovative funk.

The phone announced in San Francisco will be called the Galaxy Fold and will sell for $USD1,980 ($2760) when it is released on April 26.

Consumers willing to pay that hefty price will get a device that can unfold like a wallet so it can work like a traditional smartphone with a 4.6 inch screen or morph into something more like a mini-tablet with a 7.3 inch screen.

When fully unfolded, the device will be able to simultaneously run three different apps on the screen.

DJ Koh, Samsung president and CEO of IT and mobile communications, holds up the new Galaxy Fold smartphone. (AAP )

Samsung is hoping the Galaxy Fold will spur more people to upgrade their phones and reverse a recent slump that saw its smartphone sales fall 8 per cent last year.

Samsung is hailing the 10th anniversary of its first smartphone with three new models, although they seem unlikely to reverse a sales slump in an industry that has largely been recycling its ideas.

The Galaxy S10 phones unveiled boast fancy cameras, sleek screens spanning the front of the devices and at least 128 gigabytes of storage.

Those are all important features to consumers shopping for phones, although they aren’t a big leap from the models released during the past few years.